The Rent Guidelines Board data says 6.25% rent increase is necessary to prevent building deterioration

Plus, a break on composting fines for some — but not large apartment building owners. And we support a Housing Court alternative. 

This is your New York Apartment Association weekly update with CEO Kenny Burgos.

Follow NYAA on BlueSky: @housing.bsky.social

Follow @housingny on Instagram X TikTok YouTube & Substack 

Send us questions or comments at podcast@housingny.org 

On The Agenda

1:05: RGB calls for 6.25% hike rent hike 

→ 2025 Price Index of Operating Costs

2:56: Mayor Adams signs legislation to remove sheds & scaffolding 

3:39: State of the State Budget: It’s still late

4:34: A partial rollback on composting fines

5:29: Housing Court is broken. We need to try an eviction diversion program instead.

Visit our website for more information.


Follow Us:
BlueSky
X
Instagram
Tiktok

Transcript

This week on Housing New York, we explain the PIOC, why it's important, and preview what happens next with the Rent Guidelines Board. Plus, a break on composting fines for some, but not apartment building owners. And we weigh in on Housing Court dysfunction. 

Let's start Housing New York. 

[THEME]
“We need 800,000 units to meet the demand today. What we have right now in the United States and what we have right now in New York City is almost a crisis of absurdity.”

[INTRO]

Hi, friends and listeners. Welcome to the Housing New York podcast. I'm your host, Kenny Burgos, CEO of the New York Apartment Association. We're taping this on Monday, April 21st, the day after Easter — and I don't know the science behind it, but Easter is consistently the most beautiful day in New York City.

On to the news.

[01:05] [RGB calls for 6.25% rent hike]

We're kicking things off talking about the Rent Guidelines Board, again. It's that season and there's a lot of important stuff happening, so we wanted to break it all down. 

So last week, the RGB released the Price Index of Operating Costs, or PIOC. It said that rents needed to rise 6.25% on a one-year lease in order for 100% of rent-stabilized buildings to keep up with operating costs.

Just a reminder, more than half of rent-stabilized units are in 100% or near-100% stabilized buildings. And recent data suggests that roughly half of those buildings – or about a quarter million apartments – are functionally bankrupt. The 6.25% increase would not stop those buildings from being bankrupt. It would just stop things from getting worse.

What buildings are we talking about? These are older buildings — more than 80 years old, and many more than a hundred years old. They're mainly in the outer boroughs, with the largest concentration in the Bronx and Northern Manhattan, but also parts of Queens and Brooklyn. 

So these buildings need help. That's gonna have to come from the government, either through subsidies or changing regulations. And if you're out there listening and saying, ‘Why should we bail out building owners?’ It's a fair question. 

Our answer is that it's cheaper and better for renters to provide current buildings with a little bit of help, because the alternative is the government has to run these buildings — and history suggests it will cost a lot more, and the quality of housing for renters will be a lot worse, if we just let the buildings go bankrupt and the government comes in later to rescue them. 

Additionally, if the government takes over the buildings, it's also more likely the rent will go up faster. The last time things were this bad was around the ‘70s and ‘80s — the government had to take over thousands of failing buildings and one of the first things they did was raise rents to make sure they covered operating costs.

We sincerely hope elected officials recognize the scale of the current problem and step in to fix things. 

[02:56] [Mayor Adams signs legislation to remove sheds & scaffolding]

Quick update on scaffold sheds. Mayor Adams signed a package of bills passed by the City Council a few weeks ago that reformed the regulations around scaffolding. The bills will increase fines for owners that don't remove scaffolding in a timely manner, but also allow new designs for scaffolding and establish a plan to study the Facade Law to see the impact of less frequent mandatory inspections.

As we have said before, buildings don't need to be inspected every five years, and at the very least, they don't need to put up expensive scaffold sheds to conduct those inspections. 

The current plan just drives up the cost of providing housing. This is one of the reasons why New York City has built less housing per capita than pretty much any other city in the country over the past 30 years.

[03:39] [The late State Budget]

Okay, here's your super-fast budget update: It's late. 

Negotiations continue to stall over nothing that has to do with housing, and it's anyone's guess when it finally passes. But here's why it matters: The Albany legislative session has a clock. Once the budget is done, there are a few dozen days to get legislation lined up to pass. If the budget drags on, then there are fewer days available to work through the details on other legislation, like things that would address our very serious housing shortage. 

If the budget isn't wrapped up this week, then substantive talks on all other stuff doesn't start until basically May. 

We talked earlier about the severe stress in rent-stabilized housing and the need for help, ideally from state lawmakers. If they only have 15-to-20 days of session to address this problem, that is a really tight window, which means it is less likely that they'll be able to do something. And that is bad for both renters and homeowners. 

[04:34] [A partial rollback of composting fines]

An update on composting fines. After pushback, the Department of Sanitation has announced that they have stopped fines for failing to compost for single-family, homeowners, and smaller buildings — those under 30 units. 

The Department of Sanitation still intends to fine the owners of larger buildings, if they're unable to convince tenants to compost. 

Let's be clear. Owners of large buildings that provide compost bins and inform their tenants of the composting rules are not exempt from fines. If tenants do not comply, the owner still gets fined. It is also illegal for a building owner to pass along the cost of those fines directly to renters. 

So what is going to happen is one of two things: The fines are gonna mean less money spent on maintenance and upkeep, or owners will raise overall rents to compensate for the fines. 

If you think rents are too high, then you can add the Department of Sanitation to the list of government agencies and elected officials responsible.

[05:29] [Housing Court is broken. Here’s an alternative]

We wanna end the podcast talking about Housing Court. A few days ago, News12 did a story about a small property owner in Brooklyn who has been trying to get a non-paying tenant out of her apartment for more than three years. The tenant owes $60,000. 

The owner is behind on his mortgage and he's facing foreclosure on his two family home. He's tried to work through the Housing Court process, but keeps facing delays. He told reporters that he installed security cameras because the tenant was smoking in the building, destroying floorboards, causing flooding damage… but none of that has helped with this case. 

We want to stress that this is not unusual. We are contacted regularly by small owners who have been dealing with non-paying tenants for two-plus years, and the banks have started foreclosure proceedings on the home. We've also heard directly from court officials that a nonpayment case is going to take nine months minimum, and if that process ends in eviction, the actual removal of a tenant will take another three-to-six months. 

This process is broken. 

This is why we believe in an alternative approach. We believe non-paying tenants and property owners should be able to enter into an eviction diversion program that avoids Housing Court. This would spare renters the time and embarrassment of having to go to court, and ideally it would help get them the help they need sooner, as well as getting property owners rent payment without having to spend thousands of dollars on lawyer fees.

We know that lawyers hate this idea and we'll fight it. But it is the right thing to do, so we are going to be advocating for a better system.

[OUTRO]

That's our podcast for today. You can follow us on social media @housingny. And on BlueSky we are just @housing. The Housing New York podcast is a proud product of the New York Apartment Association. We appreciate your feedback and you can leave us a comment on Substack or wherever you're listening to this podcast.

You've been listening to Housing New York, Kenny Burgos, and I'll see you all next week. 

And remember, good housing policy starts with good conversation.